The long awaited and much anticipated start to the KZN Fishing Social league 2010 had finally come, the day started off with the most perfect of KZN summer mornings. Registration started bright and early at 05h15 and eager anglers waited with much verve and expectation for lines-in to be called at 6am. At 05h45 the anglers were briefed and the boundaries revealed. The day began, and the morning heat and humidity had many anglers wishing it was winter but even the unbearable heat did not stop the record attendance of 63 anglers fishing at their hardest. Anglers had to fish hard because, there was a day prize up for grabs for the biggest fish of the day, which was sponsored by fellow KZN Fishing member Quickbite (Suveer), many thanks to him for his generosity.

As mentioned previously we had a record number of Social League entries across the 3 divisions, and in total we had 49 Male anglers, 4 female anglers and 7 junior anglers. The fishing terrain was a good mix of rock, reef and surf, but the rocky outcrop in front of Zimbali, was where most anglers tried their luck with light tackle. Selvan, Shaan, Ronald, Imraan and a few others opted to go in a different direction, and tried sliding out bigger baits for those resident big boys. With not much action on the sliding techniques it was up to the light tackle guys to produce the goods and put some points on the board. A female angler sticking to the saying “Ladies First” landed a 20cm Karanteen and was the first to trouble the score-keepers for 2010.

This catch gave most guys the impetus to fish harder and not to be outdone, with many changing over to the ultra-light tackle to get some points on the board. It was Spinner who went on next with a 49cm eel. With no time to waste the guys were fishing hard and were getting blacktails, karanteens and stone breams at regular intervals. Niresh seemed to edge most of the guys with a lonesome 31cm shad which he released to fight another day.

It was also a very memorable day for Afzal who witnessed his 4 year old son cast and hook into his first ever fish, a decent size Wave Garrick. This spurred Afzal on and he managed to a land a beautiful Natal Wrasse which was quickly released.
Things went rather quite for the rest of the day, until Selvan , Joe and Devan witnessed the most amazing sight, a beautiful ray swimming not more than 10m in front of them and then suddenly 2 of their drags started to run but unfortunately it was a false alarm, because as they got ready to strike they realized that the ray has swam across their lines. I cannot to begin to describe the look on the faces of Selvan and Joe thinking that their big baits were going to finally pay off ! A total number of 16 Fish were caught and logged on for points.

With the temperatures soaring in the mid 30’s it was lines out at 12pm. Guys packed up their stuff, cleaned up their spots and headed to the parking area anticipating the presentation and the start of the workshops. Score cards were handed in and it was time to announce the winner of the Raffle and the winner for the biggest fish of the day!
Ronald did the draw with the help of David’s little 5 year old boy who drew the winner of the Poseidon Rod sponsored by Rock Hustlers. The winner was Victor who had taken one the few tickets remaining on that very morning was the proud new winner of the Poseidon rod.
Next up was to announce the winner of the Biggest fish of the day which went to Spinner for his 49cm Eel.
Well done to Spinner and all the anglers that fished the first round.

After the short presentation the Water Reading Workshop was on its way with Ronald leading the way. Guys were shown the art of reading water, identifying sand banks, rip currents and basically choosing a spot that is most likely to hold some fish.
Up next was Selvan with the help of  Ronald illustrating the correct way to rig up a live bait and the correct sliding techniques.
The workshops came to an end at 2pm and the guys were on their way home, after a HOT day at the beach!

A big KZN Fishing thank you to Rock Hustlers and Suveer for their sponsorships, and an even bigger thank you to all the participants, we look forward to hosting all of you at the next event in Tugela. If you didn’t come along, you missed out on a great time fishing, learning and socializing with the 63 strong KZN Fishing crew, so don’t miss the next one.

Remember the scores and log will be put onto the website for you on Wednesday, together with more pics in this report.

Well done to all and see you in Tugela.

Calvin Govender / Melvin Govender